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TB Notes NewsletterReturn to TB Notes 3, 2006 Main Menu This is an archived document. The links and content are no longer being updated. No. 3, 2006HIGHLIGHTS FROM STATE AND LOCAL PROGRAMSArt Therapy Helps Isolated Patients: Exhibition at Bellevue Hospital CenterIn recognition of World TB Day, an evocative art exhibit took place on March 24, 2006, at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. The drawings were the result of an active art therapy program offered to patients in an effort to make the experience of isolation more humane and manageable. Art therapy is based on the premise that thoughts and feelings may be effectively expressed through creative processes. Intense emotion and difficult issues find form and constructive release through the nonthreatening, insight-oriented modality.
The Bellevue program was conceived to assist patients in coping with detention. With the resurgence of TB in the 1980s and the establishment of the hospital’s secure unit, Dr. Irene Rosner David initiated an arts program specifically for isolated TB patients. Recently the TB program has received financial support from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bio-Terrorism Preparedness Grant, whereby TB services have been expanded in order to create a model program for potential quarantine. With this funding, the TB program hired a part-time grantee to provide a comprehensive art program, which included a variety of media, styles, and directives. In the past year, art therapist Julie Combal, MPS, has expanded this work and initiated creative interventions to meet the needs of this complex population. The program is a strong component within a broader context of long-standing and valued therapeutic arts services at Bellevue.
A number of patients were quoted as saying that the experience of enforced hospitalization has helped them. As they are supported through their emotional issues, there is often a validated sense of self. Through the elegance and inherently healing nature of art, they attempt to rotate an untenable situation into one of well-being and commitment to healthier living. This element was reflected in the artwork, and the exhibit’s impact was apparent in the impressive commentary by attendees. The photos below of art from this program were taken at the recent NTCA meeting in Atlanta.
For further information on art therapy, contact the American Art Therapy Association at arttherapy.org; for regional art therapists search ‘AATA Chapters.’ Submitted by Irene
Rosner David, Ph.D., ATR-BC, LCAT
Last Reviewed: 05/18/2008 |
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Engaging in
positive activities for hospitalized patients helps dissipate
anxiety, reduce agitated behavior, and foster self-esteem.
Art-making has been a catalyst in the shift from passivity to
activity, disability to ability, victimization to mastery. Not
surprisingly, patients in isolation are often calmer, better
adjusted to their restrictions, and, ultimately, more adherent to
medication regimens and hospitalization. 
One of the challenges is to integrate the infectious isolated patients
with others, despite structural barriers. One-to-one intervention is
provided to those in single isolation rooms, but there are also
innovative projects such as the production of collaborative murals.
Individual patients create sections of a picture that become
incorporated into a cohesive whole. The mural pieces are configured
by the noninfectious patients in a dayroom setting and photographed.
The photo is then provided to each isolated patient, allowing each
of them to see his or her pictorial contribution as significant in
the completed mural. The psychological message to those alone in
their rooms is “you’ve connected with others...you count...you are
part of a community.” Another project is in a collective periodic
journal consisting of illustrations, poems, and stories. It is
validating for each contributor, and also serves as a vehicle for
communication with one another. The most poignant examples are from
the more seasoned, noninfectious patients encouraging those still in
isolation with messages like “hang in there.”
The exhibit
also included several images of people wearing hygienic masks.
Interestingly, a historic drawing dating from 1945 is strikingly
similar to those from 1995 and 2005. The images eloquently convey
fear, sadness, and anger. The recent patient whose work
expressed
anger later drew a forlorn eye looking out into the corridor “in
order to be closer to people.” The act of dissipating feelings is
not only therapeutic, but the imagery conveyed can be revealing and
moving to caregivers. 
